The Max Planck Institute for Meteorology (MPI-M) in Hamburg is conducting research on the climatic processes, atmospheric physics and chemistry, and ocean dynamics and biogeochemistry. Over the last 20 years, it has specialized in the development of detailed climate models on the global and regional scales. More recently, it has undertaken the development of a comprehensive Earth system model that includes several coupled components. These include a representation of the atmosphere, the ocean with coupled sea ice, the continental biosphere, the hydrological cycle. It also accounts for chemical and aerosol processes in the atmosphere and biological and chemical processes in the ocean. These models, which are now coupled into a coherent framework, adapted to vector and parallel computer architectures and integrated on the supercomputer in Hamburg, are being used in the framework of IPCC scenario simulations.

Prof. Guy P. Brasseur, the overall coordinator of GEMS-GRG, is a Director at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology in charge of the “Atmosphere in the Earth System” Department. Jointly with his colleagues at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, he has developed a comprehensive chemical transport model called MOZART, which simulates the formation and fate of reactive gases in the troposphere and stratosphere. He has recently introduced the concept of chemical weather, and has developed at MPI-M research activities that simulate and predict day-to-day variability in the chemical composition of the troposphere. He is the Chair of the Scientific Committee of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP).

Dr. Daniela Jacobis a senior scientist and Deputy Division Director at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology in Hamburg. She specialized in regional climate research with focus on the hydrological cycle and extreme weather events. Her regional atmospheric model, REMO, includes a representation of chemical and photochemical processes, and is appropriate for simulating regional air quality at high spatial and temporal resolution. The model can also be coupled to an ocean model component, and integrated over long timescales.

Dr. Martin Schultzis a scientist and group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology. He is developing global chemical transport models, and applies them to analyze observational data gathered during intensive field campaigns. He has implemented a detailed atmospheric scheme in ECHAM-5, the atmospheric general circulation model developed at MPI-M. He has also developed a system that provides the daily evolution of chemical compounds in the global troposphere and is driven by meteorological analyses provided by ECMWF. He is particularly interested in long-range transport and its impact on regional air quality issues, as well as on atmospheric chemistry-climate interactions.

Dr. Johann Feichteris a senior scientist at MPI-M. He has developed complex aerosol models, which are now implemented in the ECHAM general circulation model. He is studying the direct and indirect effects of aerosols on the Earth’s climate. He contributes to the scenario simulations performed by MPI-M on behalf of IPCC. His model provides the global distribution of different types of aerosol particles including their concentrations, chemical compositions and size distributions.

Dr Stefan Kinne, research associate

03-08-2005